thank you both very much for the help

however, i am very clueless about what i'm doing, and while the instructions are quite simplistic to follow, i'm afraid i'm completely stumped with this one

10. Once the modem has restarted, go to the PC and configure the Ethernet NIC for either DHCP or Static IP service.
11.Once the Ethernet NIC has been configured for the appropriate service, attempt to surf the Internet. a) If
that fails, check the Ethernet NIC configuration and verify it has been configured correctly.


i made it as far as restarting the modem before i realized that i had no idea how to perform the above steps. in the end, i reset my modem using the button on the bottom and went to http://192.168.0.1, where i was asked for my username and password. this reconnected me to the internet, but i am still without a bridge connection..i could attempt it again, if you might be able to direct me to instructions for the above steps..apologies for being such a git :-)